I first met Opto 22 back in the early 90s when I searched for a solution to connect one of my Allen-Bradley devices to a Modicon PLC and discovered their solid state relays. I could at least send digital signals. (Note: I didn’t get the job.) Later I stopped by their booth at a trade show where they wore black arm bands in memoriam for the demise of the PLC. A few years later I joined Control Engineering magazine and had many interviews.
They have always had an edge and a sense of humor. And, they were always looking on the margins for competitive advantage. For years, Benson Hougland was the only technical marketing person with whom I could talk IT and OT.
Their new groov product along with partnerships with Inductive Automation (Ignition software) and Cirrus Link (MQTT) has offered a proven solution for many industrial (and other markets) automation challenges.
Well, Opto 22 is 50 years old! I’m reprinting some thoughts from CEO Mark Engman posted on Apr 3, 2024.
You can count on high-quality Opto products and continued support for all your automation and IIoT applications.
I have a hard time believing it’s been 50 years since my dad and mom started Opto 22. My dad, Bob Engman, was an engineer who helped develop a better way to manufacture solid state relays.
SSRs had just been invented in the early 1970s, and the improvement was to pot SSRs with epoxy to protect the electronics from shock, vibration, and environmental contaminants. When Opto 22 began in 1974, our first products were, you guessed it, twenty-two SSR models manufactured by the new method.
It’s all about quality
Dad was always focused on quality. He made sure every single SSR we built was tested—twice—to make sure it would function to specs once you installed it in the field. That dedication to quality is still a hallmark of the company. That’s why we don’t do batch testing. We still double-test every single SSR and I/O module we manufacture.
That’s also one of the reasons our factory is not overseas, but attached to our company headquarters in California. It’s easy for our engineers and factory team to work closely together to design and build products that are high quality. That’s why we can afford to guarantee our SSRs and I/O modules for life. And you’ve told us how much you appreciate that.
50 years’ worth of change
Industrial automation is a complex field that’s changed over and over again during the last five decades. Just think: when we started, the personal computer had barely been invented and factories were just beginning to automate production lines. As a manufacturer of automation equipment, we’ve had to look forward and adjust again and again to new technologies, new bus standards, new protocols, new communication methods—and new competitors in our field.
So it’s pretty exciting to say we’re still here, 50 years later, still supporting your legacy products and building new products that meet your needs today—needs no one could have imagined when we began.
It’s our people who got us here
I believe the main reason the company has been successful for so long is our people. My dad worked in a corporate environment and didn’t like the results of all those layers: delays, lost ideas, employees who felt powerless and unappreciated.
So when he started Opto 22, he cut the layers and created a flat organizational style. We hire good people, get them started, and then let them do their jobs. And unlike most tech companies, we don’t lay people off the minute there’s a downturn in the industry. We don’t overhire, and we keep our people because we know their value.
The result is a loyal, experienced staff who produce higher quality products and give better service to our customers in design, manufacturing, and support. They work together to build success for all of us, with very little of the internal politics you typically find in a corporation. The average tenure of our factory workers is 26 years, and of our engineering and support staff, 24 years. People are happy to work here, and it shows.
Engineers in charge
In addition to our focus on quality and our people, I think it’s the business approach of the company that makes Opto 22 a long-term player in the industrial automation field.
Opto 22 has always been run by engineers who get excited about new tech. We want to play with it, see where it takes us, build products that use it.
Because we’re engineers ourselves, we know what you deal with, day by day. We know budget restraints as well as technical ones, and everything from wiring to the frustration of systems that don’t talk with each other.
Our company’s flat structure encourages new ideas instead of squashing them in corporate layers. We can engineer new products quickly and bring them to you.
Open standards make the most sense when you’re trying to build systems and interconnect devices and software. So we’ve always helped establish open standards for the industry, like OPC and Ethernet.
We design new products for the long term and continue to support the legacy products you’ve had for years, offering upgrade paths to newer solutions.
So what does that mean in practice? It means you can count on Opto 22 to introduce new ideas that expand your options and make your job easier—ideas like programmable automation controllers (PACs), which are a hybrid of the earlier PLCs and PC-based control. We introduced the PAC concept way back in 1990 and then expanded on it in the mid-2000s with our SNAP PAC System, still sold, supported, and used worldwide.
And today the edge technologies in our groov products expand your options again. With groov EPIC (2018) for edge control and groov RIO (2020) for edge I/O, you can meet the new demands you’re seeing for data and connectivity. groov industrial construction, CPU power and memory, easier networking and cybersecurity, OT and IT protocols, built-in software, and web-based management are leading the way to effective new industrial automation architectures and digital transformation for better business decisions.
Helpful (real) people
One of the things new customers are surprised about is that when you call or chat with Opto 22, you talk to a real person. We think your projects and applications are fun to work on, so personal customer service from free Pre-Sales Engineering to free Product Support is a big part of what we do. All support comes from knowledgeable engineers here in California.
That extends worldwide, too. Our partners in the U.S. and other countries are capable distributors and integrators you can count on to handle sales, service, and training for all our products.
Thank you
As we celebrate our 50th anniversary, I want to thank all of you, our customers, integrators, and distributors, for everything you do: using our products, telling us what works—and what doesn’t—and sharing your ideas for features you need. With your help we’ve taken this 50-year journey from highly reliable SSRs to state-of-the-art Edge Programmable Industrial Controllers.
I own an Ioniq 6 electric vehicle since about a year ago. There was a soccer association meeting I wanted to attend in Lima, Ohio, and I thought I’d combine it with a stop in my old home of Sidney, Ohio. Sidney has no chargers. There is one location in all of Shelby County, Ohio located about 20 miles from Sidney at the Airstream Inc. Customer Center in Jackson Center (my home town). There were a handful of Level 2 chargers in Lima located quite inconveniently.
Let’s say that I’m sensitive to the availability of chargers off the beaten path.
A PR pitch about a company with a solution to adding electric power not only for EVs, but also temporary power for concerts or power outages caught my attention. So I interviewed CEO Tom McCalmont of Paired Power to get some details.
Let’s set a couple of other problems Paired Power solved.
You have probably driven past a “farm” of solar canopies. Constructing those is nontrivial. There is a concrete foundation, supporting structures, and mounting the solar panels. Workers must continually go up, mount a panel, come down, get a panel, move the ladder, and go up again.
Also, many companies and businesses would like to have a smaller installation maybe for just a couple of EVs in the parking lot. Or, maybe a city like Sidney, Ohio (Hi, Mayor Barhorst) could pop up a couple of stations to help attract people with EVs visiting the city for dining or shopping.
The leaders at Paired Power asked, what if we could change the design so that the supporting structure is also the lifting mechanism? What if we could design a station with a solar canopy and a battery maybe also hooked up to the grid for supplemental charging?
And, they did. They call it a microgrid. The product is Pair Tree. You must visit the website and see how two workers can set up a station in less than a day. It’s way cool.
From the press release that caught my attention:
PairTree’s technology stores green power from the sun and combines it with off-peak power from the traditional utility grid to deliver resilient, reliable, and sufficient energy for charging vehicles. With its colorful pop-up canopy design, PairTree is an American-made EV charger that delivers user-friendly and reliable green electricity.
PairTree is already being used by hundreds of everyday consumers, businesses, farmers, and government organizations for daily EV charging. PairTree even has an emergency backup plug for use during power outages.
This tale involves two of America’s largest automation companies—Emerson and Rockwell Automation.
Several years ago both added “and software” to their marketing tag lines.
I never thought I’d hear Emerson CTO Peter Zornio talk so glowingly about software. Now, that seems to be the company’s main message.
Meanwhile, Rockwell Automation went from telling me “it’s an experiment, Gary” to forging a deal with PTC to incorporate ThingWorx into Rockwell’s software suite enabling it to halt its own development. That led to Rockwell investing $1B in PTC leading to a seat on the board and closer looks at other PTC software. Its tag line in press releases added “and software.”
Rockwell hired software executive Brian Shepherd to head the Control and Automation group which included software. For a time Shepherd seemed like the go-to SVP.
Then stories of the increasingly deteriorating relations between PTC and Rockwell emerged. Evidently sales of ThingWorx were not what was expected by the parties.
Then, Rockwell acquires two software companies getting it into the cloud with Plex and FiiX. Then Rockwell divested its investment in PTC for $800M. And now Shepherd has left the company to “pursue other interests.” Replaced by someone with automation experience.
Oh, yes, the “software” tagline has long been replaced by digital transformation.
Meanwhile, I’ve received two new releases from Emerson extolling the benefits of software.
Maybe Marc Andreesen has moved on from his “software is eating the world” comment, but software in one way or another is “eating” the automation market.
All of the manufacturing automation and cybersecurity suppliers have been conducting market research that they are releasing for us all to get a sense of what customers are thinking. This one from ABB Robotics looks into the global automotive supply chain.
Global ABB Automotive Manufacturing Outlook Survey confirms automation and robotics are crucial to the future of the industry
New OEMs and start-ups lead the charge, while suppliers are lagging behind
ABB’s flexible and smart solutions make automation viable for companies of all sizes
A new global survey commissioned by ABB Robotics and conducted by Automotive Manufacturing Solutions (AMS) concludes that while automation is considered critical to the future of the automotive industry, many companies in the supply chain have yet to take advantage of the benefits offered by robotics and digitalization.
Almost all respondents (97%) believe that automation and robotics will transform the automotive industry over the next five years, with a similar number (96%) predicting that software, digitalization and data management will be equally significant. When asked about the pace of investment, most believed that new OEMs and start-ups were well ahead of the curve, investing either ‘very well’ (38%) or ‘quite well’ (28%), followed by legacy OEMs who were thought to be embracing automation ‘very well’ by 31%. However, only 7% believed that Tier 2 suppliers were making the necessary investment, with Tier 3 suppliers further behind with only 3%.
The ABB survey gathered opinions on a range of topics from a comprehensive mix of nearly 400 industry experts from vehicle manufacturers and suppliers at all levels of management and engineering as well as other key professionals throughout the automotive world.
I have begun working with a software company called Quickbase. Several companies have introduced me to low-code applications. Quickbase takes it to another level. Built in, not added on due to acquisition.
I’m on a panel discussion with two engineers who actually use the software. Their stories of how they use the software and the benefits of an easy way to add to the application when users ask for help are to the point.
Join me and others from our community at #Empower 2024 for a jam-packed day filled with big ideas, best practices, inspiration, and innovation built to support the work that we do, and the work we aspire to do. Register now and let’s do this together!
Robotics news seems to present itself all the time. I’m writing this from an independent coffee house in a small town in northern Illinois. The guy at the table behind me is quoting a robotic packaging system to a client. Weird.
ABB held a big unveiling day at its Auburn Hills, MI facility that had recently been refitted and upgraded. I attended virtually—just could not work out the logistics to make it physically. Impressive event.
In short:
Refit will support customers and ABB’s leadership in growing US robotics segments, including Packaging & Logistics, Food & Beverage, Construction, Lifesciences & Healthcare and Automotive electric vehicle production
New factory serves as US hub, developing and manufacturing AI-enabled technology to help businesses respond to labor shortages, global uncertainty and the need to operate more sustainably
Expansion is latest in over $30 million Robotics investment in the US since 2019 including Packaging & Logistics headquarters in Atlanta, Lifesciences and Healthcare Research Lab in Houston and Research and Development Center in San Jose.
The expanded facility reflects ABB’s commitment to long-term growth in the US market, which is predicted to follow global growth rates for robotics of 8% CAGR, as well as the company’s global investment to build Robotics and Automation capacity and create new, highly skilled jobs. This is ABB’s third global robotics factory expansion in three years across China, Europe and the Americas and is part of its efforts to further strengthen its local-for-local footprint.
With a 30 percent increase in facility space, the new Auburn Hills facility will enhance ABB’s ability to serve as the leading strategic robotics partner for its growing customer base. Through the new Customer Experience Center, ABB will showcase its leading hardware and software solutions, pioneering the latest digital and AI-powered automation technologies with customers, and developing and manufacturing next generation robots.
The expanded facility will support ABB Robotics’ specialist centers including its Packaging and Logistics hub in Atlanta, Georgia; its Life Sciences and Healthcare hub at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas; and AI Research Lab in San Jose, California. Complete with a new training center, the facility will educate over 3,000 workers and students each year, equipping them with the skills to thrive in a new era of AI-powered automation.
